The Change of Sales Modes in International Markets – Empirical Results for German and British High-Tech Frms

The choice of the appropriate sales mode belongs to the firm’s most important strategic decisions when entering into a foreign market. However, since the firm’s available resources and capabilities change over time, it might be necessary for the firm to adjust its foreign sales to these changing conditions. This paper applies logistic regressions and analyses empirically the probabilities of changing between the two sales modes most frequently used by young technology-oriented exporters in Germany and the UK: direct exports and exporting via an intermediary. The estimation results confirm the importance of the firm’s (intangible) resources as well as the influence of transaction-specific assets on a sales mode change.